1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the protection of mobile terminals from fraudulent use, and more particularly, to a system for monitoring defined behaviors of a user of a mobile terminal as a means for controlling access to the mobile terminal.
2. Description of Related Art
The protection of mobile terminals from fraudulent use by unauthorized third parties has become a major problem as the use of mobile telecommunication systems has become increasingly popular. The small size of a mobile terminal makes it easy to be inadvertently left somewhere by a user such that it can be picked-up and used by an unauthorized third party or for an unauthorized third party to steal the mobile terminal from a user""s pocket, purse, car, etc.
Once the mobile terminal is possessed by an unauthorized third party, the third party may utilize the mobile terminal to access other telephone numbers at will. In order to combat this problem, various techniques have been developed. One method involves the use of an input code or password. This alternative, while protecting a mobile terminal from initial access by an unauthorized third party, does not protect against the situation when a mobile terminal has already been actuated, and the password entered such that call can be made until the mobile terminal is turned off or battery power limitations prevent further use. Variations of this solution have involved the entry of verbal passwords which must be processed by speech recognition circuitry and compared with a prestored speech pattern. This solution while effective is rather complex and expensive to implement.
Additional implementations involve the gathering or transmission of information to/from the mobile station from/to a network that the mobile station is accessing. These solutions while effective over a period of time do not prevent initial contacts by an unauthorized third party since the network based protections do not become effective until the unauthorized user accesses the network and carries out unauthorized call activity which the network may then detect. Thus, some means for enabling protection of a mobile terminal that is not dependent upon network functionalities and is not limited to providing protection only during an initial start-up and accessing procedure of the mobile terminal would greatly increase the protections available to authorize mobile terminal users.
The present invention overcomes the foregoing and other problems with a method and apparatus associated with a mobile terminal for preventing fraudulent access of the mobile terminal by unauthorized third parties. A user enters a telephone number to initiate a call through a user interface associated with the mobile terminal. Control circuitry within the mobile terminal receives the requested call connection and compares the behavior which would be implemented due to the provided telephone number with an allowed behavior defined within a user profile data set stored within the mobile terminal. If the implemented behavior corresponds to allowed behavior defined by the user profile, the control means completes initiation of the requested call. If the behavior would not correspond with a defined behavior, the user providing the entered telephone number is requested to enter an access code before call completion may take place.
The allowed behavior defined within the user profile of the mobile terminal may take several forms. In a first embodiment, the allowed behavior comprises a list of telephone numbers which the user may access. In another embodiment, the allowed behavior comprises a list of the most recently called telephone numbers, and finally, in yet another embodiment, the allowed behavior comprises a rule or rules defining the number of calls which may be initiated from the mobile terminal during any particular time period or another selected behavior. The user profile also preferably includes means for enabling the user to modify the allowed behavior defined within the user profile. This may be done through a variety of methods and is enabled once a user has entered a proper access code.